When you think of jobs that would end up on the list of most dangerous jobs, you wouldn't necessarily think that being an NBA team mascot would qualify for that. Yes, the job is to jump around, rile up the crowd, dunk basketballs from off a trampoline and the like. They also show up to team functions for fans to get excited.
↵However, on Tuesday night in Tempe, the man playing the Phoenix Suns Gorilla at Dave and Busters, where he was with several other Suns employees, ended up with a bloody nose.
↵The Gorilla playfully kicked a Miami Heat fan who did not want to give him a high five, because he is a Miami Heat fan. Perhaps still bitter about losing in the NBA Finals a year ago, or perhaps he was upset about not being in South Beach, he thought it a good idea to punch the mascot in the face. The punch bloodied the nose of Robert Woolf, the man behind the Gorilla mask (but not on gamedays).
↵No charges were filed. (Thank goodness!)
↵The bigger questions are left to be asked -- who punches a mascot? As for the Gorilla -- does he get hazard pay? And if not, should he?
↵The lesson to be learned from this?
↵Leave the LeBron James fans alone. They are temperamental jerks. Oh, and you look pretty bad when you attack a mascot.
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